Memoir balances historical context with personal experiences

Monday

Sep 28, 2009 at 12:01 AMSep 28, 2009 at 10:56 AM

When you write a memoir, you should start with an interesting life. And when Richard E. Werstler looks back on the passage of his in “Vectors, A Life In Perspective,” he sees his life as a singularly enjoyable “experience,” a life that offered him a “storybook” career.

Gary Brown

When you write a memoir, you should start with an interesting life.

And when Richard E. Werstler looks back on the passage of his life in “Vectors, A Life In Perspective,” he sees his life as a singularly enjoyable “experience,” a life that offered him a “storybook” career.

Actually, Werstler has had multiple careers, he notes in “Vectors,” which is named after the word’s physics definition — “a force in a specific direction.” The author recognizes in his reminiscences that he has had “callings in several directions to serve the people.”

“From the time I grew upon the farm, all my experiences were very unique,” said Werstler, who has fit farming, military service in the Marines, writing, building restoration, conservation work, historical research and being a husband to his wife Wilma around careers as a school teacher, college professor, education administrator, and museum director.

“In all my adult years, I have been a workaholic,” Werstler writes. “I love to work both physically and mentally. My philosophy has been an abiding interest in learning, teaching, innovation and construction of buildings.”

One of the jobs that afforded him a multitude of opportunities for such activity was his work at the McKinley museum in Canton, Ohio. From 1985 to 1994, Werstler was director of what was then called the McKinley Museum of History, Science & Industry, along with its adjacent McKinley National Memorial. During his tenure, his book remembers, the museum was revitalized. Discover World was designed and developed. The facility’s Street of Shops reached reality. And the McKinley monument was restored.

The Pioneer House in the museum’s Street of Shops is a nod to Werstler’s ancestry. He is a descendent of Heinrich Worschler and he remains proud that the descendants of the early Stark County settler raised $15,000 to complete the display and one facing it on the “Street.”

“The Worschler Pioneer House and barn facade stand as a result of family efforts,” he writes, “as a monument to the early settlers who braved the Northwest Territories (Ohio) to settle the land.”

Before his years immersed in history, Werstler involved himself with the world of education. He taught in suburban Cleveland Schools, and then served as an assistant principal. He became a professor at Central Michigan University, and then was chairman of teacher education and a graduate program at Adrian College.

During those years he contributed to the book “Basic Science Handbook K-3” and authored “The Schools of Europe.” He wrote a number of historical articles, as well.

He resumed his historical research after leaving the McKinley Museum, currently helping to direct the Lake Township Historical Society. With his assistance, the society has restored a one-room school house, created a museum in a building which had been a library, and published a book, “Introducing Lake Township.”

The life of Richard Werstler has been varied and full, the author notes in “Vectors.” In a book made fascinating by the diversity of its author’s experiences and made personal by the honesty with which they are recalled, Werstler presents his memoirs as an example of learning from mentors and following ethical principals.

“I list all these experiences as my calling because I’m a Christian,” the author said. “I served humankind in the best way I knew, through the mentors I’ve had all my life.”